blueberry lemon cream cheese bread
The secret to really good quick bread is using cream cheese. It’s just so good and it provides the perfect amount of creaminess and moisture the batter. I use it in my Strawberry Dream Tea Bread and in my Creamsicle Cupcakes too. Try these recipes when you want to serve something really special.
~ preheat oven to 350 degrees F. ~
1/2 cup unsalted butter
8 oz. cream cheese (not lite)
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
6 Tablespoons 2% or whole milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
zest of 2 large lemons
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
Generously butter a 9×5 loaf pan. Mix butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy like frosting. Add eggs, milk, vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest. Mix just until everything is evenly incorporated and smooth.
In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to wet ingredients until just combined. Don’t over mix. Gently fold in blueberries. If using frozen blueberries, just add them frozen, don’t thaw them out first.
Bake 60 to 70 minutes or just until a wooden skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs when inserted into center of the loaf. Cool loaf for 20 minutes in the pan. Loosen sides with a knife and turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Store in refrigerator in an airtight container.
Enjoy!
~Melissa
I can’t wait to make this. Yummy!
Yay! Enjoy! 🙂
Can the lemon zest be omitted? I have picky eaters. ????
Hi Lynda,
If you omit the lemon zest it won’t be very “lemony.” 🙂 Maybe substitute 1 teaspoon lemon extract for the zest? Just an idea. That way you’ll still have some lemon flavor.
Thanks for visiting!
~M
This was yummy! Dried lemon zest was used after it was soaked in the bottled lemon juice. Fresh would have bee tastier but it was still delicious! My friends really enjoyed it.
Hi Susan! So happy you like the recipe! Thanks for visiting 🙂
Delicious. I used 4 small 5×3 loaf pans. While cooling I poked holes in the bread, made a glaze using fresh lemon juice & confectioners sugar, then superfine sugar on top, shaking off excess.
Can you use buttermilk or sour cream insead of cream cheese?
Hi Sharon,
I’ve never tried replacing the cream cheese in this recipe so I couldn’t say for sure. Buttermilk or sour cream may be too thin as a replacement for cream cheese and could result in a strange textured bread.
Made this yesterday to take to a friend and it turned out wonderfully! Used coarse sugar on the top for a beautiful sparkle.
Here’s a request – do you think you could create a link to make the recipe more printer friendly? I needed to copy and paste to get a one-page view.
This was my first time to your site – I’ll be back! 😊
I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe! 🙂 There’s a print-friendly button at the top of every post… the little grey one that looks like a printer. Hope that helps!
Hi, could I substitute raspberries for blueberries?
Hello! You sure can. 🙂 Great idea!
Does this recipe make one loaf or two
one 🙂
Melissa – I have hacked this recipe! If you substitute a cup of country time lemonade mix for the sugar and then omit the lemon zest and lemon juice, it’s awesome. Also, I make it into muffins. Perfect breakfast accompaniment.
Love it, Becky! Thanks for sharing your changes! 🙂